Archive for the ‘Presentation’ Category

ParaFreddo.com is coming from Quebec to the Columbia Valley and will be doing a Reserve Clinic just before our SIV at Whitetale lake. He will also be offering a Paragliding Reserve Parachute Workshop, for those who want to learn to pack their own reserves, and will be doing Paraglider inspections and trim tuning services while he is here.

Please register early (e-mail max@flyingMax.com) as we only will have limited spots available!

Our Paragliding Reserve clinic teaches pilots to decide when and how to throw their reserve parachute. It is highly recommended to practice this once a year, particularly one day in advance of our SIV course.

This workshop is essential to pilots who like to have the skills to inspect, maintain and repack their paragliding reserve and eventually want to be certified to repack reserves.

Paraglider inspection and trim tuning
Freddo is going to be in the Valley from June 8th to June 13 and will do the trim tuning here in Invermere.
We only can take a limited amount of wings to be done here and the once he can not do here in Invermere, he will take them with him to Quebec (shipping charges will apply)

NOVA Trim Tuning – $100
We will measure all the lines, analyse the trimming using special software and then put your wing back to its optimal flying condition.
https://www.nova.eu/en/service/nova-trim-tuning/

*these prices are higher than Freddo is listing at his website to cover fro Freddo’s travel expenses. The overall cost is still lower considering you are saving the shipping costs. More info at www.parafreddo.com

Winter in Canada, for most paragliding pilots, means to either dream about flying or going south to find warm thermals.

In Invermere however, we are a bit different, as we are very lucky to have the great Panorama Mountain Resort, which offers downhill skiing, Nordic skiing, snowshoeing, amongst other great activities, and also welcomes paragliding pilots.
January and February are super smooth months to fly due the cold dense air and it lets you enjoy the extra glide you are getting with it.
At the beginning of March, when the snow starts melting off the trees, you will see the beginning of the nice, wide and smooth thermals, and start doing your first XC flights of the year. The thermals are typically wider and smoother than in the spring and early summer months, as they generate from a bigger area (the trees), in comparison to generating from dry ground (the ski runs with no snow) and are great to work slowly into XC flying for the season.

For 17 years we have been flying at Panorama in the winters, but it seems that a lot of pilots avoid coming as they are probably thinking of the cold, harsh winters of Alberta. Sure, it can be cold here too, but remember, it is usually about 10 degrees warmer on this side of the Rockies.

About 6 weeks ago Mark Damm, from Cochrane, asked me if I would run a Ski-launch workshop at Panorama, as he and a couple of his buddies would love to learn. We scheduled the workshop for Friday Jan 9th evening, and 2 full days of flying on Jan 10th and 11th.
Pilots came all the way from Saskatchewan, spending 11 hours getting here, and the others were from Alberta and BC. The evening session on Friday was held at the Station Pub. Thank you for the private room and the excellent meals and service.

We discussed different launch techniques with skis and reviewed XC flight planning. Saturday and Sunday brought fantastic mid winter weather conditions, and pilots had up to 6 flights a day. All in all we flew lots, had a lot of fun throughout the weekend, and watched 15 pilots flying and landing with happy faces and we all made new friends and meet some great new people.

I would like to share some tips here in my blog to help others who are interested, and who were not able to be here for this weekend.

Panorama offers 2 launch sites:

First choice. and most used launch site is 2/3 up the mountain at the top of Roller Coaster, below the outhouses. (870m vertical). This is where the Cappuccino Hut used to be for those who remember it! This is an easy, but shallow launch site and accommodates up to 5 gliders facing NW.

Summit Launch “Roy’s Run” (1200m vertical) is a steep, wide open launch (up to 4 gliders, strategically layed out) facing W to SW. This launch is only for good skiers. It can be a tricky launch site to set up your wing as the slope is steep and the wing tends to slide down while you get into your harness. As well if the wind picks up at all, it will slide down too. Do not set up your wing at the very top of Roy’s run layed out on the “easy way road”. This will be conflicting with the ski traffic.

For the two different launch sites you need to adjust your launch techniques simply due to the nature which they are.

At the Summit takeoff, overall, the wing inflates very fast and will have a tendency to overshoot due the steep terrain. The summit take-off site does not allow you to make any mistakes as things happen very fast, and you can end up in the trees beside the run very easily if you do not work with the wing at the speed required.

If you are just getting used to winter flying, I do recommend to start 2/3 up the ski hill on the shallow launch. The tricky and unusual part at this launch is to lead the canopy for much longer than you are used to. Furthermore, you also need to be more patient and allow yourself and the wing to pick up speed for take-off. The takeoff process on skis at this launch site are way slower than you would do by foot. You should get into your harness as close as possible to the trailing edge and be a bit offset from the centre of the wing. This way as you turn downhill to start skiing you can ski (turn) into the position where you want to inflate the wing and be in the centre of your wing. If you start with tension on the lines, you might inflate the wing sideways as you stand sideways to the hill with your skis and might not have enough momentum to inflate the wing due to being sideways to the hill and with your skis on.

See the following 2 videos. One shows you when you do not guide the wing for long enough and not being able to get airborne, and the second video shows you how much you need to charge forward and patience you need to get airborne.

I want to thank Panorama Mountain Resort again for all their support to the pilots, for the sport, and allowing us to fly for so many years.
Please respect Panorama Mountain Resort’s basic rules so we can enjoy it for many more years.

Novice Rating

HPAC Liability Insurance

NO Speedwing flying, Paragliding only

All pilots to sign the 2014/2015 waiver

Pilots are required to get in touch with Max Fanderl (max@flyingMax.com) to get the waiver forms

Please respect the following points:

No flying over the bottom high-speed Chair (Mile 1 Quad) area at all.

No landings at the village. Only land on designated landing site or on Golf course if it gets to windy.

No launches after 3:00 pm

Stay at least 150 feet above lifts and ski runs

Pilots need to have skis or a snowboard to get a ride with the lift

Contact RK Heliski before you head up the Mountain at 250 342-3889.
This is just to let them know we are flying as they will inform their pilots of the activities.

This question is very often asked to us, and my answer, in short, is “we have not learnt how to do it right yet and therefore we have to do it again!”.
Well, that is one answer, but not quite true. We also say it is the adventure and experience, which is one of the reasons, but there is more behind it than just the adventure and experience.

If we look back at how our lives were before the xAlps and how it is now, it shows that the xAlps have had an impact on our lives way more than we ever expected the race would when we first started.

Penny and Max during the race

Firstly, we have learned about the Alps and know more about the geography and history of these mountains than prior to the race, and we have learned a lot about our bodies and minds, and know ourselves way better than ever before. But the most rewarding result I got out of the xAlps it is to see and realize how lucky I am to be with my supporter, best friend, and the mother of my kids. The xAlps are a serious “relationship checker” and it will bring out and show how well your team leadership skills are (on both ends), how your self discipline is, how you respect and trust each other and how important it is to accept things for what they are and accept people too, for who they are. This is all something we kind of know, but these fundamentals can get forgotten very fast when you are in a 2 week long race , extremely exhausted and when things are not always going the way you want it to go.
Penny and I learned how lucky we are to be able to have so much fun with the race and everything that comes along with it. Even though we, and everyone else racing the xAlps, have a lot of stress factors against us, such as the race itself, the time to prepare, work itself, the financial burden of the race, lost income, the training, sacrificing time with the family and the interference of our regular family life.Now how can we still do this and still be fun?
It all comes all down to the very basic fundamentals of life, such as trust, respect, the right attitude and self discipline. Once all this is in place, one needs to deal with his ego and has to simply learn to accept other people and situations as they are and make the best out of any situation.
Obeying these fundamentals helps make what one would consider the impossible, possible, and makes a race like the xAlps fun.
Everything I feel and have written about, does not just have to apply to the xAlps, it will work for everyones personal life, relationship or family, for any sport, in the workplace, work career and leadership.

What we really enjoy and what has impacted our lives, through our participation in the xAlps, is that we really enjoy sharing and influencing others with our stories and experiences.
We have done, and continue to do, a lot of “motivational/educational” presentations and leadership training in schools, to Rotary clubs and Corporations (mostly oil companies), for entertainment and also to educate them how much fun and mileage you can achieve with the right attitude.

Another fantastic xAlps presentation! Thank you Cenovus Energy Financial department for inviting us to speak at your event. It was a privilege to be a part of it, and we even learned something about the finances